But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Debbie Dingell
Dingell was one of forty members who urged the administration to withhold a new arms package and future offensive arms transfers to the government of Israel pending an investigation. She is an original cosponsor of a bill to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
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You asked Debbie Dingell where they stand.
Deep Dive
Dingell represents Michigan's 6th District, which runs from Ann Arbor down through Dearborn Heights.
Her position on transfers is on paper and it is conditional rather than absolute. In April 2024, after an Israeli airstrike killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, she was one of forty members who signed a letter asking the administration to withhold the arms package it had just authorized and any future offensive transfers until the strike was investigated. The letter names what was in that package: it "reportedly includes 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs, and 25 F-35A fighter jets", and it says the 2,000-pound bombs "have been linked to multiple mass casualty events in Gaza and are capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away". It closes by asking that "any future military assistance to Israel, including already authorized transfers, is subject to conditions to ensure it is used in compliance with U.S. and international law." Those are the signatories' words collectively, not hers alone.
On her own she has pressed the same question at the State Department. After an Israeli strike on the last Catholic church in Gaza she wrote to the Secretary of State asking how the United States monitors whether the equipment it supplies is being used lawfully, and asked five questions including what the administration is doing to ensure U.S. military aid is not used against civilians and places of worship. The same letter states plainly: "In the last few months, little to no aid has entered the region due to Israel's blockade."
On aid to Palestinians her record is long and one-directional. She is an original cosponsor of the bill to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and of a resolution calling for food and humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian civilians, and she was one of more than a hundred members who asked the Secretary of State to demand a surge of infant formula and medical equipment into Gaza. Earlier, and before this war, she led letters asking two administrations to fund that agency at no less than the 2017 U.S. level of $360 million.
Her votes need naming rather than counting. She voted against the bill written in May 2024 to force delivery of the 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs the administration had paused, at a reported 35,272 people killed in Gaza. She also voted against striking $500 million for Israeli Cooperative Programs, which is money for the Iron Dome, short-range ballistic missile defense and Arrow systems rather than for munitions, so she is not against everything. She was not recorded on the July 2026 amendment that would have barred the year's funds for Israel and cut $3.3 billion from Foreign Military Financing, taken at a reported 73,246 killed, and she has published nothing about it. Asked at a town hall to pledge to refuse money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, she declined the pledge while saying she disagrees with the group: that is about her own fundraising. Her research page carries the rest, including a 2019 cosponsorship she withdrew.
The record
Supported sending weapons or funding in 1 of 4 tracked votes
• Her campaign issues page, read in full on this date, carries nine issue areas: affordability, healthcare, economy, immigration, environment, education, seniors, veterans and equality. It has no foreign-policy section and no mention of Israel, Gaza, UNRWA, foreign aid or U.S. military assistance anywhere on the page.
• She was one of 101 members who signed the Pressley-Pettersen letter to Secretary of State Rubio urging the administration to demand that the Israeli government immediately allow a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including ready-to-feed infant formula and medical equipment; the letter states the shortage is a crisis of access rather than of U.S. funding.
• In her own letter to Secretary of State Rubio she asked the State Department to account for how the United States is monitoring whether U.S.-supplied military equipment sent to Israel is being used in violation of international humanitarian law, and asked what the State Department has done to increase the flow of medical supplies into Gaza, writing in the same letter that little to no aid had entered Gaza in the previous few months because of Israel's blockade.
• She is an original cosponsor of H.Res. 473, dated the day it was introduced; the resolution text calls on the White House, the State Department and other U.S. government agencies to use all available diplomatic tools to secure the immediate and secure delivery and disbursement of the necessary food and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, alongside the release of the hostages and a durable end to the conflict in Gaza.
• She is an original cosponsor of H.R. 2411, the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2025, a bill to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; the congress.gov cosponsor table records her cosponsorship on the day the bill was introduced.
• She was one of forty signatories to a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, led by Reps. Pocan, McGovern and Schakowsky, urging the administration to withhold the newly authorised arms package and any future offensive arms transfers to the government of Israel until the World Central Kitchen airstrike was investigated, and to attach conditions to any future U.S. military assistance to Israel.
• She and Rep. Alan Lowenthal led 56 members in a letter asking Secretary of State Blinken to fund UNRWA at no less than the 2017 U.S. level of $360 million and to press Israel to open the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings for humanitarian access into Gaza.
• She and Rep. Rashida Tlaib led 54 members in a letter asking Secretary of State Pompeo to restore U.S. assistance to UNRWA and U.S. humanitarian aid to Palestinians through USAID after two years of American funding cuts.
How this mark works
We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.
See a dash? Ask the candidate where they stand, then send us their answer and we'll review it and update the mark. Or volunteer to help review candidates.
Voted to send weapons or funding in some, but no more than half, of their recorded tracked votes. (Supported sending weapons or funding in 1 of 4 tracked votes.)
The money
Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found
In their words
Research log
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
- [Position, 2024-04-05] One of forty signatories to a letter to the President and the Secretary of State led by Reps. Pocan, McGovern and Schakowsky, opened and read in full (920 words, six pages), her signature confirmed in the signatory list. Quoted: "we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed". Separately, later in the same letter: "And we again urge you to ensure that any future military assistance to Israel, including already authorized transfers, is subject to conditions to ensure it is used in compliance with U.S. and international law." The record's existing quote joins those two passages with an ellipsis; the source separates them by several paragraphs, so they are kept apart here. The letter also names the package contents (1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs, 25 F-35A fighter jets) and puts the toll at the time at over 32,000, which is the letter's own figure.
- [Position, 2025-07-18] Her own letter to the Secretary of State after the strike on the Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza, opened and read in full (523 words, two pages), signed by her alone. Quoted: "it is essential to clarify how the United States is monitoring and ensuring that military equipment supplied by the U.S. is not being used in ways that violate international humanitarian law, especially with regard to attacks on civilian or religious locations." And: "In the last few months, little to no aid has entered the region due to Israel's blockade." One of her five questions asks "What is the administration doing to ensure U.S military aid to Israel is not being used to against civilians and places of worship", the transcription error being the letter's own.
- [Position, 2025-07-19] A follow-up release on the same strike.
- [Earlier record, 2019-09-10] She withdrew her cosponsorship of H.R. 2407, a bill to prohibit U.S. foreign assistance being used to support the military detention of Palestinian children, saying after consulting constituents that she believed it counterproductive to a two-state solution. Reported by Mondoweiss and, from the other direction, by the Middle East Forum's campus project. This is the one recorded reversal in her record and it is history rather than a current position.
- The munitions and dollar figures used on the card come from this site's own tracked-legislation registry, and the death tolls from its vote-context records. See the verification log.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
- [Position, 2025] Original cosponsor of H.R. 2411, the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2025, to restore U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The cosponsor table records her on the day of introduction.
- [Position, 2025] Original cosponsor of H.Res. 473, calling on the White House and the State Department to use every diplomatic tool to secure delivery of food and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, alongside release of the hostages and a durable end to the conflict.
- [Position, 2025-08-26] One of 101 signatories to the Pressley and Pettersen letter to the Secretary of State: "We therefore urge you to demand that the Israeli government immediately facilitate a massive surge of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, including but not limited to baby formula and medical equipment required to treat infant and child malnourishment." Collective wording. The letter frames the shortage as a crisis of access rather than of U.S. funding.
- [Earlier record, 2020-12-04] She and Rep. Rashida Tlaib led 54 members asking the Secretary of State to restore U.S. assistance to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and U.S. humanitarian aid to Palestinians after two years of American cuts: "Without immediate assistance, UNRWA faces the prospect, in short order, of having to terminate completely its essential humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees. The need for U.S. assistance to UNRWA is now greater than ever."
- [Earlier record, 2021-05-21] She and Rep. Alan Lowenthal led 56 members asking for funding at no less than the 2017 level: "Fully and robustly fund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): UNRWA is by far the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza. While the administration has provided UNRWA with $150 million to date, this falls far short of historic funding levels. The administration must fund UNRWA at not less than 2017 levels ($360 million)".
- [Reaction window, 2023-10-31] Statement on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling for an urgent humanitarian pause. Not on the card summary.
Characterization of the conflict
- [Position, 2024-08-17] At a Washtenaw County town hall, reported by the Arab American News and confirmed word for word (1,131 words read): "People are hurting on both sides, and I am a strong supporter of the two-state solution. I'm very worried. I want a ceasefire." The same report notes her May 2024 vote against the bill supporting continued weapons delivery.
- [Position, 2024-03-01] At a Capitol Hill press briefing she restated her call for a ceasefire, citing food and water shortages in Gaza, per WTVB.
- [Earlier record, 2021-05-12] Statement on the violence in Jerusalem and Gaza, calling forced evictions in East Jerusalem and raids at Al-Aqsa human rights violations while condemning Hamas rocket attacks.
- [Earlier record, 2021-06-07] Radio interview on addressing the drivers of the conflict.
- [Reaction window, 2023-11-29] Statement calling for a bilateral ceasefire and the release of all hostages. Not on the card summary.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
- [Position, 2024-08-17] Asked twice at the same town hall to pledge to refuse money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, she said: "I don't like to take broad pledges, but I don't like special interest groups", and "I will meet with them. I meet with everybody." She added that the group does not support a ceasefire. Confirmed word for word. This is about campaign fundraising, not about weapons or aid, and both the card and the deep dive say so.
- [Earlier record, 2019-09] After the H.R. 2407 withdrawal she met local activists to explain it, per the Middle East Forum report above.
- Her funding block records no support from any of the five tracked committees.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
- [Position, 2024-05-22] At a House Democratic leadership briefing she defended peaceful campus protesters while urging protection for student safety. The carrier is a YouTube item with no recoverable text, so it is not linked as a source for her words.
- [Position, 2024-09-23] Statement on assaults in Ann Arbor.
- [Position, 2024-11-12] Statement condemning a neo-Nazi demonstration outside a Michigan theater production and antisemitic violence against Israeli football fans in Amsterdam.
- [Position, 2026-03-13] After a security incident at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield she called for condemnation of the attack, per WEMU and her own release.
- [Position, 2026-06-16] On federal indictments over an intimidation campaign aimed at University of Michigan officials, she supported free speech rights and said the alleged acts could not be condoned, per Michigan Public.
- [Earlier record, 2019-03-07] Statement that antisemitism is unacceptable, alongside opposition to Islamophobic rhetoric.
- [Unconfirmed] A Jerusalem Post item was listed by our search. It opens to a desktop browser and carries no transfers position from her.
Race and status context
- She is the incumbent and the nominee for this seat. Her campaign's issues page carries nine issue areas and no foreign-policy section, which is a fact about the page rather than about her: her official record on this question is substantial.
Consulted
- Her House site releases from 2019 to 2026, two of her letters in full, congress.gov cosponsor tables for H.R. 2411 and H.Res. 473, the Arab American News, WTVB, WDET, WEMU, Michigan Public, Mondoweiss, the Middle East Forum, the Jerusalem Post, and two YouTube items with no recoverable text.
Also in this race
- ?Mixed Heather Smiley (Republican)
- –No Position Found Timothy A. Teagan (Libertarian)
- ✓Opposes Clyde Shabazz (Green)
- –No Position Found Linda Rayburn (Other)
- –No Position Found Michael Mickevicius (Other)
All Michigan candidates.
See everyone on the Michigan ballot →But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open Find Your Candidates for votes, funding and contact details.